DAYTONA BEACH -- Charges of prostitution got the Pink Pony declared a nuisance by a city board.
Representatives of the Pink Pony, who have feuded with the city over nude dancing, agreed to sanctions imposed with a 5-0 vote Thursday by the Nuisance Abatement Board.
But officials with the adult club on Ridgewood Avenue are also considering an appeal to circuit court.
"We want the business to abate the nuisance and become productive partners in the city," said Carl Fields, vice chairman of the city's board, who added he was confident the business would comply.
Sanctions approved by the board require the nightclub to:
· Take down privacy cubicles in a VIP area where lap dances are offered to patrons, to remove visual barriers.
· Improve lighting throughout the club.
· Hire a uniformed law enforcement officer for security from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays for three months starting March 1.
Eric Latinsky, a Daytona Beach attorney representing Leonard Del Percio of Sunrise, owner of the property, said an appeal of the prostitution complaint is under consideration. Del Percio was not sanctioned by the board.
An attorney for the Pink Pony did not return a call for comment Friday.
City officials issued a complaint Jan. 17 after police documented three cases of unlawful prostitution at the Pink Pony three times in 2006, within a six-month period.
Latinsky said the city presented evidence of conversation between dancers and police officers, but no evidence that police had sex with the dancers.
"The law defines prostitution as committing a sex act for money," he said. "The charging document could have alleged there was improper solicitation, but it didn't."
Tony Jackson, assistant city attorney, said Latinsky was alleging a technicality that doesn't exist.
"The board wasn't seeking to determine whether a sex act occurred," he said. "The board was trying to determine if there was a violation of state prostitution law, which includes offering to engage in prostitution."
Board Chairman Paul Rice, an attorney, did not participate in Thursday's meeting because he has previously represented a club official. Board member Johnny Charles was absent because of an illness.
The Nuisance Abatement Board can impose sanctions, fines and even close down businesses where crimes occur. More typically, the board requires actions, such as lights and fences, to help fight crime.
The Pink Pony, along with Molly Brown's II on Seabreeze Boulevard, joined together to file legal challenges against the city's adult business regulations in 2002 after a string of nudity arrests at various clubs.
In December 2004, the clubs agreed to a settlement with the city that would have ended nude dancing by April 30, 2006.
But in January 2005, U.S. District Judge John Antoon declared the city's laws against public nudity and nudity in public places that sell alcohol violated the first and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In that case, filed in 2002 by Lollipops Gentlemen's Club on Grandview Avenue, Antoon ruled the city failed to prove a negative impact on the city by the clubs.
Daytona Beach officials appealed the ruling.
Meanwhile, the Pink Pony advertises nude dancing on its marquee.
